The Record-Review – The official newspaper of Bedford and Pound Ridge, New York

October 28, 2011

Burdick, Gabrielson have earned vote

Bedford Town Board incumbent Chris Burdick put it this way in a recent discussion in The Record-Review offices:

“We’ve brought down the tax rate increase by 60 percent, we’ve maintained a AAA credit rating, we have healthy fund balances and our audit report confirms all of this. We have maintained services. We have an excellent police force. We have beautiful parks and great park programs. We have one of the best planning processes in the state. We have an Energize Bedford program that David has been at the forefront of and that’s seen as a model throughout the nation. We have a lot to be proud of.”

Mr. Burdick is right. Bedford is a pretty special place. And a lot of it is because of steady governance, coming from the five-member board and Supervisor Lee Roberts. Democrat? Republican? On the Bedford board, those partisan labels don’t often mean much. It was a bipartisan board that addressed a century of water woes in Bedford and Katonah and is finally bringing clean water to the people of the Consolidated Water District. It was the town board that helped to develop a successful dog park — not without contention— and a unified board that is helping to preserve open space, protect wetlands and sensitive areas and work on a regional environmental plan. It was a team of three Republicans and two Democrats that has brought Bedford the most successful energy conservation entity of any town its size in the nation, at the same time providing parks and summer camps for kids, van service and special events for seniors, and maintaining 28 miles of dirt roads, a yeoman’s task for any public works organization. And yes, it was a bipartisan board that overrode the state’s 2 percent tax cap.

Luke Vander Linden is an energetic and civic-minded young man who seeks to add his voice to the political arena. He is already making his mark on the recreation and parks committee and the communications advisory committee. He and his wife, Britta, are members of and active in the Bedford Hills Neighborhood Association, the town of Bedford Republican Party, the Bedford Historical Society and Bedford 2020.

But as a challenger for the town board, we don’t see how he can support the policies of fellow Republican Lee Roberts and at the same time call for replacement of Mr. Burdick and Mr. Gabrielson. How he can parse out the policies of Chris Burdick and David Gabrielson as being distinct from Ms. Roberts is unclear.

Granted, tax relief is a critical issue — for many, like Mr. Vander Linden, the issue. However, this is a town board that has kept tax increases to a minimum and has been hailed by auditors as a AAA community. Mr. Vander Linden said he would have voted against an override of the 2 percent tax cap, at the time saying he would have advocated “a carve out” for water district capital expenses. Since the end result would be the same as current board policy, his criticism of the tax cap override seems like a moot point.

While criticizing spending, Mr. Vander Linden failed to zero in on specific areas for reduction. The current town board — including Mr. Burdick and Mr. Gabrielson — are already out front on this issue, reducing town taxes, creating regional partnerships, applying for state and federal grants where available and exploring new ways to increase revenues.

Mr. Gabrielson and Mr. Burdick are a critical part of this team and provide valuable input at every meeting. Mr. Burdick’s experience with the wetlands commission, as a proponent of open space preservation and town water issues give us confidence that he will continue to protect Bedford’s precious resources. Mr. Gabrielson deserves particular credit for his work with Bedford 2020’s PACE energy programs, even enlisting the support of Rep. Nan Hayworth — a Republican. We applaud the spirit of bipartisanship that could be a model for our national leaders.

We urge a vote for Chris Burdick and David Gabrielson in Bedford’s town board race on Tuesday, Nov. 8.